“Marco! … Polo! (and repeat for seven episodes).”
Short Synopsis
The TARDIS crew hitch a ride across 13th-century Asia with the famous explorer Marco Polo, who immediately decides he’s keeping the TARDIS as his personal party trick.
Extended Storyline
Strap in, because this one’s a road trip. The Doctor, Barbara, Ian, and Susan find themselves stranded on the Roof of the World (aka: the Himalayas, but colder and with more yak-based economy). They bump into Marco Polo, who looks suspiciously clean-shaven for someone trekking across Mongolia.
Marco quickly clocks the TARDIS as his “golden ticket” to impress Kublai Khan, and like every dodgy used-car dealer, he promptly steals it. Our heroes are forced to join his caravan, which becomes the slowest game of “Are We There Yet?” in history. Along the way, there’s scheming from warlord Tegana (who has “definitely evil” tattooed on his forehead), sandstorms, thirst, bandits, and Susan befriending a teenager named Ping-Cho (because obviously we needed the obligatory “besties subplot”).
By the time they finally reach Kublai Khan’s court, Marco loses his bargaining chip when the TARDIS crew sneaks back inside their blue box and disappears. Marco is left looking like the guy who promised to bring a PlayStation to the party but showed up with a broken Sega.